On Being a Cheer Parent

We survived another weekend as cheer parents.  I have to say, hearing that term still makes me cringe.  Sitting on seats all day, sometimes it's bleachers--ouch-- and other times it's padded seats--yeah...but mostly it's a LOT of sitting. But watching those girls compete...well that is so impressive. 

As we sit on our behinds and get out of shape, those girls work their little behinds off!  Each competition we see flips and cartwheels, girls being thrown high into the air and sometimes landing hard on the ground. There are tears at times.  Tears of pain, tears of frustration and tears of happiness.  Sometimes all three at the same time.

We hold our breath, gasp, yell and cheer.  We applaud teams that try hard and succeed as well as those that try hard and fail.  We also dream of what we would like to do with the parent that chose to bring and use an air horn to cheer their child on...puh-lease people, be reasonable. 

Our girls make new friends and so do we.  We sit for hours with other parents from other teams, other cities, other states and sometimes other countries.  We compare notes on travel, expenses and our respective teams.  We point out our children and compliment theirs.  We hope they will do their best and are there to console if they don't.

Being a cheer parent is not exactly what I thought it would be.  It's just really like being a parent of a child doing any other sport!  It does have a huge benefit over soccer though, rather than standing in the snow, cold or rain in layers wrapped by blankets and covered with an umbrella, we sit in stuffy gyms surrounded by other warm bodies.

This weekend we didn't need to travel further than Spokane.  Local competitions are nice because we still have a weekend to enjoy at home.  Next weekend we only go to Coeur d'Alene...an even shorter trip!

In the next month we will be traveling to Orofino (never heard of that town until now) Idaho, Helena (never been there...but can't wait to go) Montana, and down to Portland to not only compete, but to visit family!  It will be nice when we are done with the travel...lots of it crammed into three months...but it's a great chance to get to know more of the Inland Northwest!

Here are some photos from today:

  

Q is the fourth one from the right with her hands on the flyers feet.

 

The team got third place.

 

Q is on the right side as a base for this flyer.  She didn't wear her glasses for the competition because they have a tendency to get knocked off.  It's not a sport for the timid!

 

The best thing are the friendships she is making!  Plus, she is wearing a bow in her hair...haven't gotten her to do that since she was about 3!